Update: The following local businesses have signed on to support the Bryan County Children's Fund, which annually provides gifts of toys and clothing to hundreds of local kids who otherwise would have no presents to open on Christmas morning: Richmond Hill Transmission, Toni’s Grooming, Cindy’s Custom Framing, Espresso Hill.

For more information about the BCCF's Angels for Angels Program call Kathi DiPlacito at 653-3824.

Bryan County Family Connection and the Bryan County Children’s Fund has begun a program to recognize businesses that help to ensure local children have a merry Christmas.
The program, which still is so new it hasn’t yet been given a name, recognizes the “angels who support children at Christmas in Bryan County,” BCFC Director Wendy Sims said.
BCFC staffer Kathi DiPlacito heads up the angel program and makes the ornaments for it by hand. As a former small-business owner, she said she understands how much small businesses do for the community.
“Not only do they give the community the benefit of shopping locally, they also have a heart for our kids and our community and they give back,” she said. “The angel is a good way for people to visually see that our businesses give back to the community.”
Sims said that thanks to the generosity of donors — including groups like The Good Ol’ Boys, who each year raise tens of thousands of dollars through the John Stevens Santa Scramble golf tournament — the Children’s Fund annually provides gifts for hundreds of little ones in Bryan County.
Sims estimates that, since she began working with the organization in 2003, about 5,000 children have received gifts as a result of the fund. For people who want to do more than donate, there also are opportunities to “adopt” children and families to guarantee they have good Christmases.
Last year, 500 children in Bryan County received gifts from the Children’s Fund, and Sims and volunteers try to make sure each child gets just the right present. Each applicant fills out a wish list, and children get at least one large toy, smaller toys and clothes.
Applications for gifts will be taken until Nov. 14 at the BCFC offices in Richmond Hill and Pembroke. For more information about the Bryan County Children’s Fund or the Angels for Angels program, call Sims or DiPlacito at 653-3824.